February 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

16 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us FEBRUARY 2022 EDITION
Pentagon Surging Another 100 Military Medical
Troops to Coronavirus-stricken Hospitals Across US
Some 220 military medical troops are set to deploy in the coming
days to hospitals in eight states to aid staffs overburdened by
the recent surge in coronavirus cases across the United States,
military officials announced Friday.
The deployments of the military medical teams of doctors,
nurses and respiratory therapists includes about 120 active-duty
troops announced last week by President Joe Biden and another
100 announced Friday by U.S. Army North. The troops from
the Army, Navy and Air Force will deploy to medical facilities
in Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York,
Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas, Army officials said.
The new wave of deployments will bring the number of activeduty
military medical troops working to bolster coronavirus
support to U.S. hospitals to about 400, according to Army
North. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month approved
the military to deploy up to 1,000 new medical troops into U.S.
hospitals, if requested by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
“As our support to FEMA and the whole-of-government response
to the pandemic expands due to a surge in hospitalizations, we
are committed to working alongside our civilian medical partners
to assist hard-hit states and communities in need,” said Lt.
Gen. John Evans, the U.S. Army North commander. “Whether
military or civilian, we are in this fight together.”
Biden said Jan. 13 that the deployments have been driven by
the emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the
most infectious version of the disease since the pandemic spread
worldwide in early 2020. Coronavirus cases reported to federal
health officials have fallen slightly from a pandemic high of
more than 1.3 million cases on Jan. 10 to about 708,000 as of
Friday. Hospitalizations in the United States have remained at
pandemic-high rates with almost 160,000 Americans hospitalized
as of Friday, federal health data shows. Hospitalizations peaked
in 2020 at about 140,000 last January, amid the delta variant’s
surge.
Pentagon and state officials have provided active-duty and
National Guard troops to the coronavirus response since its
emergence in the United States in early 2020. Including the
new deployments, active-duty medical troops will be serving in
hospitals in 15 states, according to Army North. Another 6,000
Guard medical troops were deployed to hospitals, care centers
and medical facilities, according to National Guard Bureau
statistics.
U.S. Army North said the teams deploying include a 40-person
Navy team to Christian Hospital in St. Louis; a 20-person Army
team to University Hospital in Newark, N.J.; a 20-person Air
Force team to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; a 20-person Army
team to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence; a 20-person
Army team to Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospital in Amarillo,
Texas; a 20-person Army team to Northern Navajo Medical
Center in Shiprock, N.M.; a 20-person Navy team to University
of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque; a 20-person Army
team to Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital in Wyandotte, Mich.;
a 20-person Army team Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn,
N.Y.; and another 20-person Army team to North Central Bronx
Hospital in Bronx, N.Y.
Pentagon officials have declined to say how long the troops were
expected to deploy. John Kirby, the Defense Department’s top
spokesman, said last week that they would not be “open-ended”
deployments but end dates have yet to be determined.
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